Subbul's Blog

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Statutory Warning: I am not endorsing/against any emotion in particular :)

We are surrounded by emotions everyday, thanks to media/social media, viral nature of it
just amplifies the matter to the worst.

How we get emotional:

Triggers can be linked to Language/Race/community/Patriotism any thing which involves more than 2 people. As an example attack on a person belonging to a Race can incite violence to spread ( we have seen in India as well as in Developed nation Like USA)

why we get emotional:

We relate ourself(individually) to the affected person/group and a fear psychosis prevails and aggravate. Other people projects the ill behaviors and how a person/group is suppressed to gain sympathy and incite more triggers, garner support

what is the benefit to others?

If you would ask me few years back it was for political movement to get support organizations/companies to leverage their products-services. Nowadays almost everyone(Media to a larger extent) want to get their 15mins or 15 days of fame. Though this appears shallow, ulterior motive is to divert the attention from a bigger topic (to use recent example, from Demonitization or a political issue)

what we(individuals) lose in the process?

Cognitive ability to think and take decisions, rather we succumb to a forwarded whatsapp or tweet/post and believe it is true, sort of bias we develop. Emotions blinds us to discern between truth and lies. In this process we see a choice between devil and deep blue see and nothing inbetween. We choose a wrong product, wrong leader, wrong idea.

To take examples, be it an attack on race, language related disputes, water sharing, sports, political dramas, economic scandals all will die down after weeks if not months from the mainstream media and we move on, thanks to our short-term memory.

It is OK to be emotional but let it not blind us, drown us from seeing the truth

Sunday, January 31, 2016

How many earth shattering Discovery/Invention (if you do not understand the difference google it) accounted by humans, who had formal education? Very few (Note: i am not counting people who created new programming language or computer hardware)

Many fundamental, life essential theories were formulated by great philosophers, mathematicians, physicians , scientists.

Going to the BC/AD era, when philosophy/logic was a key aspects, all these schools had purpose to make thinkers, not to make someone sit and rote subjects.
Mathematicians like Euler/Euclid/Pythagoras/Fermat and many more, found patterns in nature and could see harmony in nature's flow. They codified formulations and documented axioms. Their mental acumen and visualization capability were better than computers and machine which came centuries later.

What made them discover these patterns in numbers, relationship between numbers? Is it for their livelihood, to achieve fame, to be rewarded/awarded by a committee ? NO, not at all most of our fundamental mathematics were founded by people who did not make a fortune or inherit wealth ( some might have been already wealth) doing this. To me they were the real open source pioneers.
They did not clamour about their achievements, rather fought tooth and nail to prove or disproved by others. In some case, the implication of their discoveries were not usable until late 19 century.

Industrial revolution and Information revolution in late 18 century and 19 century harnessed the discoveries/inventions of previous generation and attached value/price to it.

Glad there was no patent regime in 1 century BC or till 17 century AD, otherwise right from the number system to planetary motion would have been patented and would have stemmed the scientific discoveries and inventions.

Looking back at the luminaries of bygone era, they lead an unfettered life and without any obligation for financial goals to achieve. They were soaked with nature during their entire life time , like Charles Darwin, Newton, Galileo, Da Vinci. They did best which suited them and not for anything else.

Even today there are people, who call themselves "following passion", who tread along the path of great master of previous era, hope education does not spoil them, rather Nature, does it best, nurturing them.

India known for its diversity, has deep rooted caste divide ( recently communal divide). Living in a pluralistic society we want to avoid being type casted as high or low caste and derided by others.

Lets take a hypothetical assumption that caste cease to exists like in western world ( take the case of USA).
Will that solve the problem? In USA, there isn't segregation based on caste, but economical status definitely affects, racism white, native, afro american, latino are undergoing bias knowingly or unknowingly.

In india, if we somehow magically erase/abolish caste, and keep UID or some number as our identity, no forms or reservation takes place, will there be peace?
I doubt, if we do not have a "phrase or word" associated with caste, we start taking the unique id number as the mechanism to show superior or inferior( UID below 100K are higher or so), odd number UIDs are important persons etc.

If we take a corporate organization, everyone cannot be a CEO, we all need to perform our duty and achieve various roles, not i am bringing a point that caste can be equated to designation or grade, just to bring analogy.

Casteism root needs to be probed, was that based on profession or it was by birth, i really doubt about the latter. Because, the probability of doctor's son/daughter becoming doctor is high due to their vested interest, not because of the knowledge. Like Mahatma Gandhi will be unique, not his father nor his son. Adding surname of Gandhi doesn't equate everyone to behave like him. This is exactly we are stuck with the casteism.

Everyone must perform their duty and enjoy the fruits of their work, not bounded by the caste. A street will not be good if all the cleaning representatives fail to clean the street because it is low end job or meant for lower caste. Same way a country will not be good if the government goes overboard thinking they are the highest caste or higher authority.

Each one of us born in different caste by birth, but true identity is how we perform in our duties and recognition purely on our merit and service. History is replete with great souls being authors, musicians, scientists, head of states from so called backward caste(born into).

Education, behaviour, care for society alone will make a person of high respect, not his/her birth.

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Ever wondered why some things exists in the world? Lets take a logical step.
Why do we need Ants? Is it useful to humans, to the society?

Yes, ofcourse, you don't need to be an biologist to understand the need of an Ant.
Many refer Ant or Ant Colony to symbolize hard workers etc. Lets move away from aphorism for now and see the practical use, it doesn't yield anything like Cows etc, but they play an essential role in keeping the environment in balance, they decompose waste materials and recycle things back to Nature or Soil, in simple words they are our free Scavengers!

So each individual creature in this world has a role to play, whats is your purpose?

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Even though staying in Bangalore for a decade and passed through Mysore for various occasion, I didn't bother to stop by for a day trip. Last time i did see Mysore was, as a Kid, this time with my Kid.I got a stay offer at JP Fortune palace Mysore for a night.

Started off from Bangalore at around 7AM, hit the NICE road and joined Mysore road, next stop was at Ramanagara for breakfast at Kamat Lokaruchi, it was crowded at its best as usual. Last time i stopped by was my trip to Doddamalur and then to Melkote.
We hit straight to Mysore, reaching Chamundi Hills, unfortunately all the roadsigns are confusing in Mysore, better to check with locals. Chamundi hills was hot as it was around Noon, reached Hotel, checked-in then headed towards the Mysore Zoo.

Mysore Zoo is one of the oldest Zoo's in India (more than 100yrs old), maintenance is impeccable, they prevent littering of plastic items by collecting a token amount and returning back when you bring back the plastic bottles. The animals are free to roam and see, not much crowded inside a cage (except for birds and reptiles).

Tiger(Asian) and white tigers grab the attention and very visible as they are kep inside an island kinda setup,most of them were sleeping due to hot summer.

Lots of Elephants are seen along with other animals, we had a good time, walking, stopping, resting and drinking lots and lots of water alongside.

After a brief rest at Hotel, again we started out for Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS as popularly called) dam and Brindavan gardens for the water fountains. Place was very crowded with people coming from various states as it was a loong-weekend. Water fountains were nice and as it became dark, lighting was good but one cannot expect more ( I mean Vegas Bellagio show). Around 7PM, the musical fountain was up, we retired to hotel.

Next day, checked out early from Hotel and reached Somanathapura(35kms from Mysore) on Bannur Road, this place is a real architectural wonder and a protected monument. It dates back to 12 century or so, lot of intricate carvings, especially the ceiling with chandelure kind of carvings in stone. Very typical Hoysala architecture, as you see in Belur, Halabedu.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Knowing or unknowingly I wished few things to do before I die, one among them was to climb Tirumala by walking along the foot steps. I reached tirupathi on a Wednesday noon, got a local bus till alipiri, walked to the entrance of footpath, which was like a small underpass. Devotees removed their slippers and break coconut to start the journey. Total climb distance is around 11km. First leg of journey is very challenging and put you to very high stress and energy consuming. Steps are steeper and continuous, thanks to small resting pavements,stones and un obstructing shops. There are plenty of drinking,cooling water spouts and clean restrooms as well. The footpath is clean thanks to the maintenance of TTD devasthanam. Eat light (non oily foods) and also carry healthy snacks and water. First 1000 steps can be covered in a breeze, but next 500 or 600 will take twice the previous time. Again keep the pace have frequent breaks for every 40 steps or so. The big milestone in this journey is reaching Kaali gopuram, where tokens for free daarshan,tonsuring and accommodation is provided. I utilized the free darshan which takes faster in the sarva darshan queue compared to anyother paid tickets (you see a benefit right here itself). After Kaali gopuram, next 30 45 mins of walk is rather flat and enjoyable. In this leg you can see Deers from SV zoo within the fence. The final leg, not as challenging as first one but gives your leg muscles a tough time, as you are stretching it suddenly after so much relaxation. In this part 1 2 km walk is along the road without protection from downstream vehicles from Tirumala. There is a slippery part as well. Again you will enter the footpath, guarded route till you reach the garuda statue at Tirumala. Devotees lite camphor and bring this journey to an end. Personally, I enjoyed as it gave relaxation to mind and body. Totally it took 4 hours for me to climb the 11 km footpath. I recount one episode of my Tirumala visit, where I boasted to my colleague that I visit Tirumala at will, he was seriously advising me that its not that easy and you should have a calling, I some what rubbished his claim. After few days, the same year I planned on a diwali day assuming no one will come that day. On reaching tirupathi I realized I was a fool, added to that darshan counter or ticket mechanism was changed, I waited in a queue for 6 hours even to get a ticket, which I couldn't, frustrated and walked out. I decided to reach Tirumala, pray from outside and return home. I prayed outside the temple looking at the vimanam from outside. Soon after went to restaurant which I always go whenever I go to Tirumala, had food and when I was paying the bill I saw a wallpaper with these words "Darshan is not what you get, it is what he (Lord) gives", on seing this I felt someone really slapped me. From that time onwards I started believing that one can get or can buy darshan by paying big tickets, but only his wish to see us ,not ours.

Monday, July 19, 2010

I was ignorant about the fact that shirdi sai and puttaparthi were quite different. Shirdi sai baba was born in a hindu family and adopted by a muslim fakir, he lived in shirdi and helped lot of people from their distress, his miracles were not magical but of help to those in need.

As I got to know about shirdi sai baba I thought of visiting. Inspite of my plan with ksrtc ,it turned different on the day of travel thanks to karnataka, maharashtra fighting over Belgaum. None of the ksrtc buses were plying and I reached bus stand without a hint of it.luckily sharma travels volvo service was running to Pune,i hopped on that at 1pm,a comfy travel and reached pune at 4am.took an auto rick to swar gate to find that shirdi bus starts from shivaji nagar.Btw even at 4am shops were busy selling vada pav. Waited til l 5 am and got a bus to shirdi. I humbly thank the language fanatics for the difficulty in me to decode every marathi letter in each bus board,post process with my hindi reading and pattern matching skills.wish I had QR codes pasted on each bus!! After crossing lot of toll roads,reached shirdi,a small town, bus stand was as bad as you would imagine, enquired one lodge for room and summarily rejected,saying no room for people coming alone,next hotel didn't have this rule. Room had a fan running at same speed no matter how vigorously you change the control knob. Just had a quick shower and headed towards the shrine. As with any place with religious importance, shirdi also flooded with touts around free slipper storage and asking you to buy pooja items. I refused and headed towards safe storage for my camera and mobile phone.since I had never been there or with people knowing it I had tough time in locating the queue.i joined the queue for samadhi darshan at 11.30am,like Tirupathi line was long,in between some gang of people jump across the lines. I can tolerate atheist, but cannot accept these people.samadhi is the place where sri sai baba is layed down after he breathed last. In his remembrance,a white marble statute is installed.millions of people visit shirdi every year. The entire place he lived is walled by a big compound, neem tree under which he sat when he settled is called Guru sthan,landi bagh is a garden,a museum is there which displays baba's belongings like his clothes, grinding wheel, sleeping bed, mug etc. After 3hrs standing in queue I was able to see the wonderful life like statue of sri sai baba.After that I collected the sacred ash(udhi)and prasadam. I vacated the room at 3pm and hopped on to pune bus,reached pune at dot 10pm and found a seat for my return travel to bangalore. 3 days of non stop travel yet happy.

Some tips to travelers Get your train tickets booked when traveling with family, delhi bound trains from bangalore stop near shirdi (check web for details) Get your accommodation right, even though I found good hotels later near the shrine. Good 3_4 days need for this travel unless you stay nearby or traveling by air No mobile or camera is allowed, keep bottles of water, juices for long queues, check the travel month and plan accordingly.

Special entrance for aged people and physically challenged available at particular time of the day

I wish I had more time to explore the sacred place. Next time I should plan for a peaceful and calm time.